THE WRATH OF ROHAN!

Hello All,

The following is a narrative battle I found in Games Workshop's THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE TWO TOWERS THE BEST OF WHITE DWARF MAGAZINE from 2003. This scenario can also be found in White Dwarf #274 November 2002.

This scenario is taken from the part of The Two Towers (movie) where The Three Hunters, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, have encountered Eomer and his riders of Rohan and are informed that his (Eomer's) group encountered the Orc/Uruk-Hai warband they (The three hunters) were tracking.

(SEE LINK)

This is that battle...

Please note that I updated the scenario for the most recent edition (A task much easier than I thought it would be)

The good guys consisted of Merry and Pippin in the clutches of some Uruk-Hai and Orcs are who are debating on whether or not the hobbits are fair game for dinner when they are attacked. The rest of the force consists of Eomer (No extra equipment), a Captain of Rohan with Sword & Shield and 16 Riders of Rohan (8 with throwing spears.)   - all mounted on horses. Note-we subbed two Haradrim Raiders as I did not have 8 riders of Rohan with spears assembled.

The Evil side included Grishnakh,  and Ugluk (originally he was represented as an Uruk-Hai captain but we decided that we would use his actual stats/rules instead.) also included were 10 Uruk-Hai with shields, 5 Orcs with shields, and 5 Orc's with bows.

Merry and Pippin begin the game under the control of the evil player as prisoners but can be freed during the course of the game.

As you can see from the deployment map that the Evil side has a bit of an up hill fight. If they choose to fight the riders straight up they will lose as killing all the Rohirrim is not even an option as a victory condition. The Evil side wins if it can get Merry or Pippin to the wooded board edge (as prisoners) The Good side wins if they can get both Merry and Pippin off the same board edge (as Free Hobbits.) The good side also wins if they kill all the Orcs and Uruk-Hai before they can  reach their own victory conditions. Sound like fun? It was...

Starting positions- The Rohirrim started in a long line while the Orcs and Uruk-Hai surround and protect their prize.

As this is a "Classic" scenario Good gets priority and surges forward. The Skulls were there to mark out the Evil deployment zone and had no effect on the game.   

The Orcs and Uruk-Hai use their movement to move forward and attempt to hold up as many Riders as possible to give the Guards a head start with Merry and Pippin.  

Kind of reminds me of a football game.

A Rider of Rohan has a shot and decides to take it. Remember that the riders may shoot at the hobbit's guards in this scenario because they do not know they are there.  

The Good forces attempt to use their greater speed to outflank and get around the forces of evil.

That earlier shot hit its mark and the Orc holding Merry is slain. Merry is now free to act on the good player's turn. The Hruk-Hai nearby charges him in an attempt to deny the good player one of it's victory conditions. 

The meat grinder continues as the good player keeps getting charged by evil Orc's and Urul-Hai . Note that a few were able to make the Outflanking work, but are still a ways from the remaining guard. 

A closer look at the action.

Eomer joins in a charge against Ugluk hoping to deny the evil side some needed Might

The normal Rider was slain leaving Eomer to battle Ugluk alone. further back you can see that the Orc/Uruk-Hai lines are breaking and several groups of Rohirrim are making their way through. 

Yes I know that is an Uruk-Hai scout model. I could not find my Ugluk model
and this is close to the one they used in the original Battle report

The battle rages on as more and more Riders of Rohan
break free to pursue Pippin's captor.  

Frequently dice were used by the good player to note charges.
I have recently purchased tokens that should work really well.

The Uruk-Hai that charged Merry was defeated (but no wounds were dealt.) Still fearing for his life Merry starts running to the relative safety of Fangorn.    

Pippin, still a captive, is carried towards the forest.
Did his attempt to murder Merry cost the Uruk-Hai too much time?

The Good Player moves his models forward in "Hot Pursuit" of the Uruk-Hai
attempting to get away. Since the Rohirrim do not know what a hobbit is we
assume that Merry is using stealth so is not noticed by the Riders that are so close.  

After being caught in a combat between two Riders and defeated the evil player
is forced to move his archer 1 inch out of combat and mark him as prone. 

The Rohirrim are closing in on the last remaining Uruk-Hai. there are
still 3 Orcs on the table including Grishnakh so it's not over yet.

The last two archers dead, Grishnakh  is charged by a Rider and is locked in combat once again.

The Uruk-Hai Guard with Pippin makes a desperate attempt to flee, and steal
the victory from the forces of good, using the trees of Fangorn as a barrier.  

7 Rohirrim  including Eomer are barreling down
on the last Uruk-Hai. Will they get there in time?

Ha! One of the Rohirrim has managed to get ahead
of the Uruk-Hai guard and is in charge range.

It looks bleak for the bad guys!

A four way charge. you don't see that every day. It was pretty brutal. After the 8 attacks thrown at it the poor Uruk-Hai suffered 16 strikes and was pretty much Gibbed 

Now all they have to deal with is Pippin...

I'm not an Orc! "
Not in the face!"

VICTORY to the forces of Good. 

Overall it was a fun game to play and the new Middle Earth Strategy Battle game rules are improved over the last edition. It was also nice to discover that such an old scenario is still playable 16 years later with very little change needed. 

I hope you enjoyed this Bat Rep and if so please comment. :)

Till Next time.

RGH